Posted on Feb 1, 2016

Hillary Clinton likes to extol her foreign policy credentials, particularly her experience as secretary of state. She attaches herself to Barack Obama’s coattails, pledging to continue his policies. But she is even more hawkish than the president.

Like Obama, Clinton touts American exceptionalism, the notion that the United States is better than any other country. In his State of the Union addresses, Obama has proclaimed America “exceptional” and said the U.S. must “lead the world.” Clinton wrote in her book “Hard Choices” that “America remains the ‘indispensable nation.’ ”

It is this view that animates U.S. invasions, interventions, bombings and occupations of other countries. Under the pretense of protecting our national interest, the United States maintains some 800 military bases in other countries, costing taxpayers tens of billions of dollars annually. Often referred to as “enduring bases,” they enable us to mount attacks whenever and wherever our leaders see fit, whether with drones or manned aircraft.

Obama, who continues to prosecute the war in Afghanistan 15 years after it began, is poised to send ground troops back to Iraq and begin bombing Libya. His aggressive pursuit of regime change in Syria was met with pushback by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, according to Seymour Hersh.

The president has bombed some seven countries with drones. But besides moving toward normalization of relations with Cuba, his signature foreign policy achievement is brokering the agreement to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.

Although Clinton supports the nuclear deal, she talks tough about Iran. In September 2015, she provocatively declared, “I don’t believe Iran is our partner in this agreement. Iran is the subject of the agreement,” and added, “I will confront them across the board.” She said, “I will not hesitate to take military action if Iran attempts to obtain a nuclear weapon.”

During the 2008 presidential campaign, Clinton promised to “totally obliterate” Iran if it attacked Israel. Clinton was, in effect, pledging to commit genocide against the Iranian people.

In an August 2014 Atlantic interview with Jeffrey Goldberg, Clinton maintained, “There is no such thing as a right to enrich.” Apparently, she has not read the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which gives countries like Iran the right to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes. Article IV of the treaty says, “Nothing in this Treaty shall be interpreted as affecting the inalienable right of all the Parties to the Treaty to develop research, production and use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes without discrimination and in conformity with Articles I and II of this Treaty.”

One country that does possess nuclear weapons is Israel—which refuses to ratify the NPT. Clinton has consistently and uncritically supported the policies of the Israeli government. In the Atlantic interview, she placed the blame for Israel’s 2014 massacre in Gaza squarely with the Palestinians.

From July 8 to Aug. 27, 2014, Israel killed over 2,100 Palestinians—including more than 400 children—80 percent of them civilians. Sixty-six Israeli soldiers and seven Israeli civilians were killed.

When Goldberg asked Clinton whom she held responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Palestinian children, she demurred, saying, “[I]t’s impossible to know what happens in the fog of war.” She blamed only the Palestinians, saying, “There’s no doubt in my mind that Hamas initiated this conflict.” Claiming “Israel has a right to defend itself,” she said, “I think Israel did what it had to do to respond to the rockets.”

But Israel did not act in self-defense. In the first 10 days of June 2014, Israeli forces abducted 17 Palestinian teenage boys in the occupied West Bank. On June 12, three Israeli teenagers were abducted in the southern West Bank; Israel accused Hamas. After those three were found dead, a group of Israelis tortured and killed a Palestinian teenager in Jerusalem. On July 7, Israel launched a large military operation in the Gaza Strip, dubbed Operation Protective Edge. The Israel Defense Forces devastated Gaza. For 51 days, Israel bombarded Gaza with more than 6,000 airstrikes.

The United Nations Human Rights Council subsequently convened an independent, international commission of inquiry, which concluded that Israel, and to a lesser extent Palestinian armed groups, had likely committed violations of international humanitarian and human rights law, some constituting war crimes. “The scale of the devastation was unprecedented” in Gaza, according to the commission.

Yet Clinton was puzzled by what she calls “this enormous international reaction against Israel,” adding, “This reaction is uncalled for and unfair.”

She attributed the “enormous international reaction” to “a number of factors” but only mentioned anti-Semitism, never citing Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian lands or its periodic massacres in Gaza.

Indeed, just last month, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the Security Council it was an “indisputable truth” that “Palestinian frustration is growing under the weight of a half century of occupation and the paralysis of the peace process.” He noted that it was “human nature to react to occupation, which serves as a potent incubator of hate and extremism.”

Clinton didn’t ponder why so many people around the world are participating in the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against the Israeli occupation. Representatives of Palestinian civil society launched BDS in 2005, calling upon “international civil society organizations and people of conscience all over the world to impose broad boycotts and implement divestment initiatives against Israel.”

In her November 2015 article titled “How I Would Reaffirm Unbreakable Bond With Israel—and Benjamin Netanyahu,” published in the Jewish newspaper Forward, Clinton vowed to continue to oppose BDS. “As secretary of state, I requested more assistance for Israel every year,” she boasted, adding that she opposed “the biased Goldstone report,” explained below.

After Israel’s 2008-2009 Operation Cast Lead, in which nearly 1,400 Palestinians (82 percent of whom were civilians) and 13 Israelis were killed, a U.N. Human Rights Council report by a commission headed by Justice Richard Goldstone concluded that “Disproportionate destruction and violence against civilians were part of a deliberate policy [by Israel].”

Israel responded to the report with threats and harassment against Goldstone, leading him to backtrack on one of the findings in the report that bears his name, namely, that Israel deliberately targeted civilians. But the other members of the commission stood fast on all of the report’s conclusions.

Clinton’s vote in favor of President George W. Bush’s illegal 2003 invasion of Iraq cost her the 2008 election. It also cost more than 4,500 Americans and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis their lives.

Yet Clinton cynically told corporate executives at a 2011 State Department roundtable on investment opportunities in Iraq, “It’s time for the United States to start thinking of Iraq as a business opportunity.”

The same year, Clinton led the campaign for forcible regime change in Libya, despite opposition by the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Responding to the gruesome sodomizing of President Moammar Gadhafi with a bayonet, Clinton laughed and said, “We came, we saw, he died.”

Both the Iraq War and regime change in Libya paved the way for the rise of Islamic State and dangerous conflict in the Middle East. Obama is about to escalate his military involvement in Libya. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, said, “The president has made clear that we have the authority to use military force.” The New York Times reports that the expanded campaign is “expected to include airstrikes and raids by elite American troops.”

The Obama administration is reportedly changing the rules of engagement to allow more civilian casualties in the “war” against Islamic State. A senior military official told The Daily Beast, “Now I think you’ll see a little more willingness to tolerate civilian casualties in the interest of making progress.” But the Geneva Conventions prohibit the disproportionate killing of civilians.

Clinton has promised to escalate the wars in Syria and Iraq, including a no-fly zone in Syria. Since Islamic State doesn’t have an air force, her no-fly zone would be likely to capture Russian planes flying over Syria.

Talking tough on ABC’s “This Week,” Clinton declared, “We have to fight in the air, fight on the ground and fight them on the Internet.” She said nothing about diplomacy or an arms embargo to stop sending weapons that end up in the hands of Islamic State.

Although the corporate media fans the flames of fear about Islamic State, only 38 people in the United States have died in terror-related incidents since 9/11, according to Politifact.com. The “war on terror” has cost us more than $1.5 trillion, in addition to U.S. lives and those of untold numbers in other countries.

Nevertheless, there is little doubt that a President Hillary Clinton would continue our “perpetual war.” She would do everything in her power to ensure the robust survival of the American empire.

Marjorie Cohn is a professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, former president of the National Lawyers Guild, and deputy secretary-general of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers. Her most recent book is “Drones and Targeted Killing: Legal, Moral, and Geopolitical Issues.” See www.marjoriecohn. Follow her on Twitter at @marjoriecohn.

The difference is that Europe was the rightful and legal home of the Jews. They had a right and a duty to defend their families and lives and property in Europe. It was a disastrous decision and calamity for them and civilized society that they did not stand firmly, forcefully and righteously against the fascists and Nazi thugs at the early onset of violence against the Jews. Had they done so, they would have engendered respect and alliance from others opposed to fascism.

The poles have shifted. Israel has no such righteous claims. Israeli, transplanted European and Russian Jews are the oppressors. The Palestinians are the European ghetto Jews.

The SA was founded in Munich by Hitler in 1921. The SA outfitted in brown uniforms (Brown Shirts) after the fashion of Mussolini’s Fascist Blackshirts in Italy, marched in Nazi rallies, and physically assaulted political opponents and Jews.

Hitler’s Munich Putsch failed in 1923 and the SA was not reorganized until 1925.

The besieged German Jews had seven years to legally acquire all the weapons that they needed to defend themselves. They didn’t.

The difference is that Europe was the rightful and legal home of the Jews.

Sorry Deuce, Jews the historic people of Jerusalem, Hebron, Bethlehem and the Galilee have been driven from their legal and rightful homes. Then after being dispersed, they were expelled by the arabs of the middle east, invaders themselves and driven to live in Israel. Of course, most of the Jews of Europe were murdered. But the Jews of the arab occupied middle east have reestablished themselves in their historic homeland.

Face it.

Jews have a right to live in Jerusalem, even if there are arab thieves that have lived there for a bit of time.

Remember the Jews of Hebron? The ones in 1922 murdered and the rest driven from their homes by the arabs?

Sorry, Deuce, the arabs are invaders. They are not historic to the lands.

The Jewish community of Iowa holds Israel as an important voting component but it is not the absolute, President of the Jewish Federation of Greater Des Moines and AIPAC chair in Iowa, David Adelman told The Jerusalem Post on caucus day on Monday. “I would say that the Jewish community in Des Moines is representative of a cross section of the Jewish community nationally,” he explained.

...

However, he said, Jewish life is thriving in the city today, as more first-generation Iowans choose to live in the Hawkeye State to enjoy a better quality of life. “Now its a choice to be here and its not just adults who’s parents are here but a cross section of people all over the country,” he explained.

The Jewish Federation of greater Des Moines recently celebreated its 100 year anniversary this past August.

I made no such claim. I believe a man has a duty to protect his family and kin and makes a mistake to expect that others do it for them and then blames them for not doing what should have been done by himself. You as a Jew have repeatedly claimed that Jews learned their lesson and have taken a more assertive roll against their enemies. Most lessons come from mistakes or misjudgments. I agree with your assessment.

Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said Monday that Su-35 fighters have been deployed to Hemeimeem air base in Syria. The Su-35 is Russia’s most advanced fighter that is fielded in significant numbers. NATO designates the aircraft as the SU-35S Flanker-E.

Overall, U.S. defense officials are quite impressed with this latest Flanker variant. “It’s a great airplane and very dangerous, especially if they make a lot of them,” one senior U.S. military official with extensive experience on fifth-generation fighters told me some time ago. “I think even an AESA [active electronically scanned array-radar equipped F-15C] Eagle and [Boeing F/A-18E/F] Super Hornet would both have their hands full,” reported National Interest.

In addition to providing hi-tech protection for its ground attack aircraft in theater, the Syrian conflict will allow Moscow to test the new weapon system in combat conditions. Currently at least four of the new aircraft are in theater and will also allow Moscow to market the system to China and other militaries as a combat proven weapon system.

The deployment also sends a message to Turkey that, in combination with the S-400 anti-aircraft missile system, Russia can defend its aircraft anywhere in theater with weapon systems equal to or even more capable than NATO can field.

I went RCP to see how Sanders was doing against Clinton in New Hampshire. The polls indicate he is ahead. The interactive graph on the same page showed that he started pulling away from her on January 6 so I googled what was happening with her on that date. While there was a lot there, I couldn't find any one thing that moved the needle towards Sanders.

There was much talk about e-mails, Benghazi, FBI probes and such; but no one in the Democratic base cares about any of that. Other articles reported

- She couldn't tell Chris Matthews the difference between a Socialist and a Democrat.- After calling Trump a sexist and stating that every alleged rape victim deserved to be believed, when Trump in turn called her an 'enabler' for excusing Bill's indiscretions, she folded her tents and meekly replied that she was non longer going to reply to 'personal attacks'.- The progressives in the party were pushing to have Debbie Wasserman Shultz resign because of what they saw as her tipping the process for Clinton.- She made a fool of herself in Las Vegas in January when, pointing to snow outside, she said it proved climate change was real thus proving only that she can't differentiate between weather and climate change.- There was also the ill-advised use of Chelsea on the campaign which was widely ridiculed.

There were others, the NK nuclear test, the Vanity Fair hit piece on Huma, but the one I found interesting was the fact that she was completely baffled by a question from the audience on the Netflix program, 'Making of a Murderer'. I say that only because of Bernie's popularity with young people and Hillary's apparent unfamiliarity with that group.

Of course, most of these things won't hurt her in most of the primaries but they are likely to surface in the presidential race.

No, I think that the Christian Church had spread hatred for a 1000 years.

Deuce: Does the level of hatred focused on a people have a threshold that justifies them being denied basic human rights, their property or their lives?

Of course not, but at last look the Israelis do not treat the population of arabs in any way the same. Only those that are attacking them.

Maybe if Israel treated the Palestinians as the Europeans treated the Jews (time and time again) there would be no issue as the palestinians would have been totally killed or driven off many times over... Maybe if the Jews of Israel treated the arabs the way the arabs treated the Jews? There would be an arab free Israel, but Israel does NOT treat the arabs the way the arabs treat the Jews.

Deuce: Does your metaphor of “sucking on a tit” differ so radically from “a parasite sucking on the blood of a host”?

Sure does, sucking on a tit is not killing the host... Maybe you are not familiar with breast feeding? At last look it never killed the mother...

Deuce: Does that justify 10,000 of them being killed or a million forced into ghettos?

Assad and your pals the iranians are killing tens of thousands of them. Not Israel. And it's specious to say that gaza is a "ghetto" it is not in any way other it being segregated a ghetto.

Try learning about what the Germans did in the "ghettos" at last check the population of Gaza is exploding billions of dollars are being pumped in, thousands of trucks of food and supplies are being provided, humanitarian aid is pumped at an alarming rate....

But alas in the real world? the Germans never helped the Jews to medical care, nor food, nor trying to allow them self government.

The palestinians have chosen war and it's consequences. Maybe they will tire of trying to murder Jews in Israel and across the globe?

I doubt it..

Just last week, in America, another Palestinian was arrested for plotting to murder Jews in here.

From Bobby Kennedy forward the palestnians have embraced murder as their way.

The US Drug Enforcement Agency announced Tuesday that American and European law enforcement agencies have uncovered an international money laundering and drug trafficking operation run by Hizballah that is being used to fund the terrorist organization's operations in Syria. It said senior leaders of the Hizballah operation in Europe were arrested last week. The DEA said its "Project Cassandra" is aimed at breaking up Hizballah's network for shipping cocaine to Europe and the US. The network was founded by the late arch-terrorist Imad Mughniyeh and is currently run by Abdallah Safieddine and Adham Tabaja, in cooperation with South American drug cartels. Law enforcement authorities in seven countries are involved in the ongoing investigation that started in 2015, according to the DEA.The agency added that the network's couriers collect and transport drug proceeds from Europe to the Middle East, with much of the millions of euros in proceeds transiting through Lebanon. The proceeds are then paid to drug traffickers in Colombia.The Hizballah schemes "provide a revenue and weapons stream for an international terrorist organization responsible for devastating terror attacks around the world,” DEA Acting Deputy Administrator Jack Riley said. "DEA and our partners will continue to dismantle networks who exploit the nexus between drugs and terror using all available law enforcement mechanisms.”

Magnificent Ronald and the Founding Fathers of al Qaeda

“These gentlemen are the moral equivalents of America’s founding fathers.” — Ronald Reagan while introducing the Mujahideen leaders to media on the White house lawns (1985). During Reagan’s 8 years in power, the CIA secretly sent billions of dollars of military aid to the mujahedeen in Afghanistan in a US-supported jihad against the Soviet Union. We repeated the insanity with ISIS against Syria.